| GRACIE MAE celebrates her FOURTH birthday with a Romantic Pink Princess cake and a party with her friends from school |
| It all started the end of May when Genna and the kids came to Rockford. Gracie and I spent time on the Internet looking for ideas for her birthday cake. She, of course, fell in love with a beautiful Princess Castle. I thought I could make something similar so I went to Cakes Plus ("my" cake store) and explained what I wanted to do. The decorator suggested I purchase the Wilton Romantic Castle Kit. It was expensive at the cake store, but I had a whole fistful of 50% off coupons from Michaels. So (with her blessing) I rented my pans and bought all my supplies from her, then trotted off to Michael's to buy the kit. |
| "The Cake" |
| Birthday week started at home on Wednesday with baking cakes. I am using this whole cake making experience as sort of a mini "crash course" in cake baking and decorating. And I also found a website called yummyarts.com . It has become a Godsend! My first cakes were a disaster. I threw them out. Then I packed off to Lansing (stopping at different Michael's stores along the way to buy my own pans and baking strips), and started over. With information on baking from yummyarts.com , the second batch of cakes were perfect. I used Pillsbury Confetti mixes because my "Cake Lady said they would be "just fine". And they were. |
| The cakes on the right are the bad ones (over baked puffy tops, raw insides - nasty. The left ones were done with baking strips and a center nail. PERFECT. |
| Thursday: While the new cakes were baking I started piping all of the little curlicue decorations for around the edges of the cakes, using Royal Icing. Royal Icing - a whole new experience for me. I used recipes and techniques from the yummyarts.com online video instructions. I didn't believe that the curliques would dry hard and strong, but they did. |
| I didn't buy the expensive decorating turntable - a new potter's banding wheel on the upside down cake pan worked great. And I didn't buy the torting cutter - my bread knife was fine. Saved those for the next 50% off coupons! |
| Thinned strawberry preserves, whipped cream/cream cheese and lemon curd fillings for the layers. |
| Thursday: Per the Wilton directions for the castle cake - a 6 inch layer cake for the top and a 10 inch layer cake for the bottom. Per technique instructions from the online video instruction -- filled, crumb coated and frosted with butter cream frosting. |
| The kit consists of plastic parts (instead of the wrapping paper tubes and ice cream cones I was going to use -- much more re-usable!) You use frosting tips and ice right on the plastic. Very fun. I also used edible glitter on the tops of the turrets for sparkle. The structure is all stuck together with melted candy glue, royal icing, butter cream and supports. |
| ONE A.M. SATURDAY MORNING - IT'S ALIVE! IT'S ALIVE!! |
| Saturday morning - party day: kind of like Christmas morning. Genna let me sleep in past 7 while she stayed downstairs with Charlie. Then Gracie gets up, sees the castle cake, runs back upstairs yelling "Nana! Nana! Come see the cake!" Per our last nights' agreement she begins her part - decorating the "yard" with flowers and putting the princesses in their places. The "yard" is the pullout bread board from Genna's kitchen, covered with cake foil. |
| Scary, scary. The cake has to be disassembled so that it can travel in the car. The towers and turrets come down and get packed, making it relatively easy to transport the base. Gracie has all of her Princesses in a basket! |
| TA DA!! The cake made it all in one piece and the towers and turrets went right back together (straighter, actually, than they were at home!) Some extra butter cream for support, Gracie to re-set the Princesses and her party was ready to begin! |
| . . . and it ends as all good parties should -- with nothing left standing but the front door and someone face down in a flower bed . . . . |
| And, per Wilton, the 200 little fondant forget-me-nots that Gracie and I cut out Thursday night. |
| I didn't make a cake for birthday #2 (she had an ice cream clown) but I did make one for #1 and #3. |